7rcTIX1xP

A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga766
As valuable as are all these illustrations, examples, and figures of speech,
still all must of necessity fall short of the truth in the case of the Soul of
Man—that wondrous something which has been built up by the Absolute
after æons and æons of time, and which is destined to play an important
part in the great Cosmic Drama which it has pleased the Absolute to think
into existence. Drawing its Life from the Universal Life, it has the roots of its
being still further back in the Absolute itself, as we shall see in the next lesson.
Great and wonderful is it all, and our minds are but illy fitted to receive the
truth, and must be gradually accustomed to the glare of the Sun. But it will
come to all—none can escape his glorious destiny.
The Oriental writings are full of allusions to the underlying Oneness, in fact
the entire Oriental philosophies rest upon it. You may find it everywhere
if you will but look for it. The experience of Cosmic Consciousness, which
is naught but a sudden or gradual “awareness” of the underlying Unity of
Life, is evidenced everywhere in the Upanishads, that wonderful series
of teachings in the Hindu classics. Every writer in the collection gives
his evidence regarding this awareness of Unity and Oneness, and the
experiences and mental characteristics arising from the same. The following
quotations will give an idea of the prevalence of this thought:
“He that beholds all beings in the Self, and the Self in all things, he never turns away
from it.”
“When to a man who understands, the Self has become all things, what sorrow,
what trouble, can there be to him who once beheld that unity.”
The Hindu father explains to his son that the One Life is in all forms and
shapes, points out object after object, saying to the boy: “Tat tvam asi, Thou
art that; That thou art.”
And the Mystics have added their testimony to that of others who
have experienced this consciousness. Plotinus said: “Knowledge has three